With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, the Booksellers at Book-ish have put their heads together to come up with a list of book recommendations inspired by the theme of love in all its colourful, varying and sometimes unexpected forms.
Spring Rain
Marc Hamer
£16.99
As a young boy in a violent home, Marc found refuge in his small back garden. Here he kindled a lifelong love of nature and learning by observing the plants and insects in his private kingdom and reading the old encyclopedias he found in the shed.
Join us for an evening with Marc Hamer on Wednesday 22nd February at 7.30pm.
Boy Friends
Michael Pederson
£14.99
In 2018 poet and author Michael Pedersen lost a cherished friend, Scott Hutchison, soon after their collective voyage into the landscape of the Scottish Highlands. Just weeks later, Michael began to write to him. As he confronts the bewildering process of grief, what starts as a love letter to one magical, coruscating human soon becomes a paean to all the gorgeous male friendships that have transformed his life.
The Long Field
Pamela Petro
£20
The Long Field burrows deep into the Welsh countryside to tell how this small country became a big part of an American writer’s life. Petro, author of Travels in an Old Tongue, twines her story around that of Wales by viewing both through the lens of hiraeth, a quintessential Welsh word famously hard to translate. It literally means “long field,” but is also more than the English approximation of “homesickness.” It’s a name for the bone-deep longing felt for someone or something–a home, culture, language, a younger self–that you’ve lost or left behind.
Join us for an evening with Pamela Petro on Tuesday 14th March at 7.30pm.
The Things We Do To Our Friends
Heather Darwent
£14.99
Clare arrives at the University of Edinburgh with a secret. This is her chance for a blank slate – to finally become who she was meant to be. And then she meets Tabitha. With themes of love and dark revenge, an intoxicating feminist page-turner, this novel will take you on a journey from Edinburgh’s dazzling spires to the dripping staircases and dark alleyways of its underbelly.
Drift
Caryl Lewis
£14.99
A beautifully realised modern love story moving between the Welsh coast and Syria, Lewis’ meditation on connection, identity and the power of the sea revolves around two lost souls trying to make sense of the world they find themselves in.
Join us for an evening with Caryl Lewis on Monday 27th March at 7.30pm.
To Paradise
Hanya Yanagihara
£9.99
Traversing three centuries and three alternative versions of the American experiment, the author of A Little Life returns with a spellbinding chronicle of love, the meaning of family and the excruciating cost of unattainable dreams. To Paradise is a fin de siecle novel of marvellous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love – partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens – and the pain that ensues when we cannot.
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